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Second #MyBookClub Wrap Up with @TheBrandbuilder

Olivier Blanchard

My second Book Club with on July 10th was with Olivier Blanchard @thebrandbuilder featuring his book, Social Media ROI. I had the pleasure of meeting Olivier at #unGeeked conference in Chicago (I remember, I don’t know if he does, reminder I was the girl with the sharpie) and hearing him speak in an hour long presentation that you could have heard a pin drop. One of the things I liked best about Olivier’s presentation is that he took great care in breaking the larger concepts into smaller pieces which he prefaced by saying “let me break this down for you” which was fabulous. Not only did he present at #ungeeked, Olivier spent a long time preparing his speech and interacting within the full group discussions and sharing his thoughts which enhanced this whole experience for me.

A huge thank you to Olivier for agreeing to be a #MyBookClub guest, sending tweets and answering all the questions that were thrown at him in an hour. Very much appreciated!! @TheDomesticExec won a copy of Social Media ROI which will be autographed in August and sent to her. Congrats Michelle!

Here is the wrap up from the live Twitter chat, the questions are in bold and Olivier’s answers are below. He also answered quite a few series of questions in Open Mic so I have included a few. Without further delay:

Hello and welcome to @thebrandbuilder!! I’d like to start by asking you how you got started in Social Media.

I started blogging around 2002 or 2003, I think.It didn’t take long for me to start the BrandBuilder blog, which was a vehicle to discuss brand mgmt. I started chatting with people like @armano, Seth Godin (via email), Guy Kawasaki, and I was hooked

Q Do you find that blogging is your favorite form of Social Media?

On the less professional side of it was Buzznet, which at the time was a mix of FB, Twitter and Flickr. Blogging is my long form publishing platform. If I need to be long-winded, I can always blog. But I am equally enamored with Twitter. It’s a conversation engine and I like that. Back then, the blogosphere was less cluttered. The quality of “content” was better. I’m just a dude who writes stuff. 🙂

Q Do you find tweeting hard narrowing it down to 140?
Nah. There’s always another 140 and another 140. I can rapid-fire sentence fragments. 😉

Except in Cannes, where my internet connection is snail-slow. I can send a fax faster than I can send a tweet.

Q You discuss “listening before talking” this is a crucial point, please ellaborate for us.
Two ears, one mouth, right? Same thing. 😀 We’re now dealing with dialog, not just a marketing monolog anymore.This is one of the fundamental differences between paid media and “social” media. No one-sided convos. 1. If companies don’t listen before they talk, how do they know they are addressing the right issues? 2. Nobody likes a guy who tries to sell his wares in social settings. SM creates a new context for marketers. Also, nothing says “we don’t really give a sh*t” like a company that doesn’t listen and truly engage in SM. A company with ZERO content strategy can still kill it in SM if it only listens and responds. Listening is key.

#smROI Quote “Knowledge is power, insight is golden. This is why listening and observing are much more important than talking”Q @thebrandbuilder Community Mgmt is paramount to a brand. Who do you feel is managing their SoMe communities well?

The function of the community manager? That requires a long answer. It’s a pretty complex job.First of all, there’s a monitoring function. The CM has to be 100% aware of what is going on there. So the first function is to have a finger on the pulse of the community. That’s crucial.Then there is a shepherding function as well. The CM has to walk a fine line between mgmt, empathy and curation. A CM has to be both the representative of the brand AND the consumer advocate. This isn’t easy.

Q @thebrandbuilder Can you describe the function of a Community Manager and how they can succeed?
CM has to be both the representative of the brand AND the consumer advocate. This isn’t easy. Too much “brand” push, and the CM will lose his/her credibility within the community.

Too little backbone when it comes to defending the brand and the CM will lose credibility internally. So being a community manager is an intellectually complex role, especially nowadays. The days of the BBS manager are kind of over. A CM now has a much tougher job than 8-10 years ago. Right. “Community management” sounds easy. And it can be, but only for people with a talent for it. For everybody else, community management can be very difficult. Or at least taxingIt takes more that an intern and a monitoring tool to properly manage a community now, in other words. Depends on a a lot of factors, but operationally, in-house usually works better. It really depends on the CM Two things a lot of companies overlook when hiring a CM: Passion and insight. 1. A CM has to really love the kinds of topics the community focuses on. 2. He or she has to be knowledgeable. A “social media expert” isn’t qualified to manage a community until he or she is truly a part of that community. With all that, I want to make sure people don’t mistake community management with SM management. Diff roles.The community mgr isn’t necessarily the person who should lead the dev and mgmt of an SM program for a company. The CM is there to be a middle-man between the co and its community. The SM director has a much broader role. Also, community mgmt can be a group effort. It doesn’t have to fall to just one person (and probably shouldn’t). Not to mention that a well managed community leverages community members for some of its mgmt funtions. Not to mention that a well managed community leverages community members for some of its mgmt funtions. But product mgmt, sales and mktng have targets. So THEY need to work with CM to affect consumer behaviors. The community manager is a strategic asset, as is the community. Depts with $ goals have to leverage them. What you want to see is a positive increase in conversions: From fan to cust. From cust to repeat cust, etc A CM can also collect feedback from the community on how to improve a product to boost its value.

#smROIQuote: “The stronger the brand, the more loved, respected and aspired to, the stronger its market position tends to be.”
____________________________________________________________________________
Open Mic questions from @PaulBiedermann:

pamelamaeross #rookie question (caveat) how do you measure these conversions – on SoMe can you Measure customer vs fan etc?

thebrandbuilder @pamelamaeross What you want to see is a positive increase in conversions: From fan to cust. From cust to repeat cust, etc.
____________________________________________________________________________
Open Mic questions from @Loismarketing

thebrandbuilder @LoisMarketing A CM can also collect feedback from the community on how to improve a product to boost its value or discover product ideas from the community that the co hadn’t thought of.

The guest next month will be @DaveKerpen with his New York Times Bestseller @Likeablebook. @mari_gold won a copy of Likeable courtesy of Dave Kerpen which has already been mailed to her. The next online Twitter #MyBookClub is Sunday, August 7th at 6 pm EST. Hope to see you there!

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from Peg

Meet Peg Fitzpatrick!

Peg Fitzpatrick is a popular social media speaker, trainer and, social media author. She's co-author of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users. Covering all the major social media platforms, she frequently hears “you’re everywhere!” She’s passionate about social media and inspiring others to be their best. Read More…

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